Detergent

MUMBAI: The Rs 3,600 crore detergent industry, which has worked up a lather because of high input prices in the past one year, is hoping to reap the benefits of competition. Reliance's virtual monopoly over the market has recently been broken by oil PSU IndianOil, which has entered the petrochemicals business. The clash of the titans has resulted in an initial discount for linear alkyl benzene (LAB) users. However, industry sources say there could still ultimately be a LAB cartel among the suppliers.

NEW DELHI: Mother Diary has moved swiftly to limit any damage from reports of detergent being found in milk samples, saying that this came from a consignment that had yet to be accepted for processing at its factory. Milk goes through several levels of testing before it enters the system, said S Nagarajan, managing director of Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable. "The samples (from a village near Agra) were drawn even before reaching the chilling centre and was neither...

The makers of Sabena, ECOF Industries Pvt Ltd is all set to venture in detergent marketwith the launch of a premium detergent bar before Diwali. The company is planning to enter the highly competitive detergent powder business by mid-2004, where it will take on the likes of HLL, P&G and Henkel Spic, a newspaper report said. According to the report, Sabena, Ecof is even planning to enter new territories in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. However, it is already retailing in Orissa.

NEW DELHI: Procter & Gamble (P&G) on Tuesday said the company will sell its detergent manufacturing business to a fully-owned subsidiary, Procter & Gamble Home Products Ltd (PGHP), for Rs 101.40 crore. The decision, taken at the company's board meeting yesterday, will see Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd "transfer by way of sale or otherwise its detergent manufacturing business, comprising of land, building, plant and machinery and other assets" at its Mandideep Plant in Madhya Pradesh.

NEW DELHI: Mother Dairy today denied allegations that detergent was found in one of the samples of milk picked up from its collection centres, saying it has sent it for retesting in a lab in Kolkata. A day after the UP Food and Drug Administration said it had found detergent in one of the milk samples of Mother Dairy, the co-operative said the tested was done on "loose milk samples collected at village level" which were yet to be accepted by it. "The...

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over adulterated milk in the country, a Parliamentary panel has suggested the government to make efforts to popularise a new technology for detecting the presence of detergent in milk. The government's Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed a new colour-based test for rapid detection of detergent in milk. The technology has already been transferred to Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Federation, Mother Dairy and...

MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever will soon launch the country's first liquid laundry detergent, hoping that affluent consumers will pay a premium for a product that promises to make their laundry chore easier. At Rs 230 for a litre, Surf Excel Liquid will be the most expensive daily use detergent product. So far, liquids were sold only for woollen clothes or as post-wash whiteners and conditioners within the laundry category. HUL, which also owns...

MUMBAI/KOLKATA: Jyothy Laboratories (JLL), which owns brands such as Ujala and Maxo , is in advanced stage of talks with West Bengal-based detergents and allied products company Safechem Industries to buy its flagship laundry detergent brand, Safed. The deal is estimated to be Rs 70 crore, according to two people familiar with the transaction. The due diligence process has been going on over the last three...

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over adulterated milk in the country, a Parliamentary panel has suggested the government to make efforts to popularise a new technology for detecting the presence of detergent in milk. The government's Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed a new colour-based test for rapid detection of detergent in milk. The technology has already been transferred to...

MUMBAI: The recent transfer of the contract manufacturing detergent business (Ariel and Tide brands) from P&G Health & Hygiene (PGHH) to P&G Home Products (PGHP), signals the global major's interest in increasing its detergent business significantly in the near future, analysts said. The detergent business has begun growing at double digits, raising the company's confidence in the Indian market. The company is expected to invest in resource employment in the division and create...

NEW DELHI: Citigroup Venture Capital India (CVCI) is in talks with Kanpur Trading Chemicals (KTC), the maker of Ghari detergent, to pick up equity stake in the company. It is learnt that the due diligence is on for a deal that could see Citigroup acquire around 14% in KTC. At the current valuation of close to Rs 1,000,he deal could be signed at around Rs 140 crore. When contacted, Citigroup declined to comment. "We do not typically comment on Citigroup private equity...

KOLKATA: After consolidating its presence in West Bengal with 21 per cent market share, detergent manufacturer Safechem Industries would pan out in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, says a top company official . "In West Bengal, we are a clear market leader with 21 per cent market share in the detergents segment. We will look at setting up plants in either eastern UP or Bihar," CEO of Safechem Industries Ritum Jain told PTI. Operating in an extremely...

NEW DELHI: Jyothy Laboratories today reported over two-fold increase in its net profit at Rs 29.16 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014, mainly on the back of robust sales in soaps and detergent segment. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 11.81 crore during the same period of previous fiscal, Jyothy Laboratories Ltd (JLL) said in a filing to the BSE. Net sales of the company rose by 21.23 per cent to Rs 329.91 crore in the fourth quarter, as...

In the current election season, washing opponents' dirty linen in public — and proving oneself to be not only spotless but also whiter-than-white — is par for the course. In that context, conjecturing why someone else's shirt is whiter than their own would not be wise, but given that as a poser it has successfully propelled a detergent company's product for years, it's certainly got a high popular recall and hence has a potential to become part of poll repartee too. Therefore,...

MUMBAI: Large product categories of biscuits, soap, washing powder and refined oil dragged the entire consumer goods market down to single-digit growth last year. If not for these four heavyweight segments, which together account for about 30% of the fast moving consumer goods market, the FMCG market would have grown in double digits. Growth in the Rs 2.2 lakh-crore FMCG market almost halved to 9.4% in 2013, according to data from market tracker Nielsen. Biscuits, soap,...

Advertising has, and probably always will be, a cool place to spend your days and nights, as the American TV series Mad Men has made abundantly clear, countless Old-Fashioned cocktails and personal dramas notwithstanding. It's advertising's job to make the ordinary seem extraordinary and yet make it seem well within the grasp of mere mortals. But what happens when, instead of colas, lingerie, Lucky Strikes and Jaguar, Don Draper must sell pension...

NEW DELHI: Hindustan Lever has planned a mega relaunch of its mid-priced detergent brand Rin to counter P&G's Tide, which has emerged as a threat for Lever. Adding a fresh twist to the ongoing detergent war, Lever is replacing Rin Shakti with Rin Advance in new formulation and packaging. The idea is to take on Tide singularly. The price of the new product will remain the same for the moment, Rs 42/kg against Tide's Rs 46/kg. Further, Lever will retain its other sub-brand Rin...

MUMBAI: Delhi-based third-party manufacturer JHSSvendgaard , which made Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent until June and still makes its Oral-B toothbrush and toothpaste, has taken its largest client to the Competition Commission of India, alleging anti-competitive practices. In is complaint sent through law firm Khaitan & Co, JHS alleged that it had set up a plant exclusively to make Tide detergent after P&G assured long-term association. But...

MUMBAI: Procter & Gamble India could face a legal challenge from one of its leading contract manufacturers, JHS Svendgaard , for not renewing a contract to make Tide detergent. The contract manufacturer claims that a plant in Kalaamb, Himachal Pradesh was set up in 2010 to exclusively make Tide detergent and that it would suffer considerable financial losses because of the move. P&G for its part says that it does...